7 Warning Signs

“I will not be as those who spend the day in complaining of headache, and the night in drinking the wine that gives it” - Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (author)

From Women’s Health Magazine comes this list of 7 WARNING SIGNS YOU SHOULD NOT IGNORE.

1. Severe head pain
2. Throbbing tooth
3. Sharp pain in your side
4. Passing chest pain
5. Abdominal discomfort with gas or bloating
6. Back pain with tingling toes
7. Leg pain with swelling

I’ll try to cover these, one each day, with the exception of Ovarian Cancer (can you guess which one that is from the list of symptoms?) With my grandmother, mother and wife I’ve experienced, secondhand, Fallopian Tube Cancer, Ovarian Cancer and Uterine Cancer. But I leave these topics as an exercise to the reader and will focus instead on problems that can affect either sex.

We may all experience mild versions of the symptoms above – headaches, chest pain, sore tooth, etc. But when the intensity is at 10 on the pain dial, you need to find out why.

Head Pain – a super headache could be a migraine. Migraines often have a visual side effect that distorts your vision. But a sudden and severe head pain, the worst in your life, could be something much worse than migraine. A friend of ours was living in Mexico and attending a movie show with her husband when she saddening started screaming at the top of her voice and collapsed. She was rushed to a hospital and was unable to speak and paralyzed on one side of her body. The cause – a ruptured brain aneurysm.

An aneurysm is a blood vessel that swells and widens like a balloon. In a majority (60%) of patients there is no symptom prior to rupture. Afterwards symptoms may be major or minor depending on the size of the vessel to rupture and may include:

• Nausea and vomiting
• Stiff neck or neck pain
• Blurred vision or double vision
• Pain above and behind the eye
• Dilated pupils
• Sensitivity to light
• Loss of sensation or paralysis

A CT scan is needed to detect an aneurysm and the blood vessel needs to be repaired immediately so call 911 if you experience the “worst headache of your life.” Brain damage will begin two ways:

1. Portions of the brain may die that are cut off from the blood flow
2. Blood pooling and pressure inside the brain can injure nearby blood cells

About 40% of the people who suffer bleeding from an aneurysm die within the first month. Approximately another one third have major nervous system damage such as long-term memory problems and may have difficulty with thinking, perception, and performing simple daily activities. When our friend recovered her speech (after much time and therapy) she would intermix English and Spanish words as she spoke – her brain had trouble keeping the two languages separate.

Bottom Line

Autopsy studies reveal that 3-6% of all adult Americans have experienced aneurysms that never ruptured. It’s a ticking time bomb inside many of us so it's important to recognize the symptoms and respond quickly. The risk is higher as we age. One positive risk factor that can be controlled is smoking. Smokers are 10 times more likely to rupture an aneurysm. Binge drinking raises the risk of damage (by thinning the blood?) and there are some hints that high blood pressure is also a factor.

http://www.emedicinehealth.com/aneurysm_brain/article_em.htm
http://www.brainaneurysm.com/aneurysm-symptoms.html
http://www.bafound.org/info/symptoms.php